Our History Clips: Collaborating for the Common Good

This case study reveals how middle school social studies teachers within a professional development program are encouraging their students to use multiple disciplinary literacies to create Our History Clips as they also work toward developing a classroom community of engaged student citizens

Building an Evaluation Framework for The Smith Center’s Education & Outreach Department

The Smith Center, Clark County’s premier performing arts center, offers professional development opportunities through their Education and Outreach Department to teach local educators how to incorporate arts integration strategies into their classrooms. Research has shown that arts education, particularly in the form of arts integration, can bolster student achievement, increase student engagement and motivation, develop critical and creative thinking patterns, and boost social competences, such as collaboration and self-confidence. Given the great possibility of improving student achievement via arts integration and the poor educational outcomes that the Clark County School District has been struggling with for years, The Smith Center’s professional development program has much to offer Southern Nevada

WE\u27RE STILL EMERGING: A POETIC INQUIRY EXPLORING THE TENSIONS BETWEEN INCLUSIVE MINDSETS, TEACHER IDENTITY AND DISABILITY STIGMA

This poetic inquiry sought to understand the tensions, perspectives and experiences of teachers as they work to create more inclusive mindsets and identities despite working in a system that allows for ability profiling and disability stigma in schools. This work fills a gap in the literature in that not much is known about the journeys teachers take as they come to identify as inclusive educators. The conceptual framework drew from scholarship in the fields of Disability Studies in Education, Studies in Ableism, critical pedagogy, and teacher identity. Conducted in a professional development school, I worked as the university\u27s professor-in-residence to provide professional development for teachers that centered a disability memoir and critical reflection. Qualitative data was gathered through interviews and book club discussions. Lines from these transcripts were then used to construct transcription poems. After creating these initial poems, threshold poems were then created that juxtaposed a transcript poem with a found poem from each of the four key areas of the conceptual framework. These poems brought theory and praxis into dialogue, supplemented by my own analytical thinking inspired by the theorists\u27 and participants\u27 words. Significant findings indicate that: (1) ableism is deeply embedded in schools, policy and practice, with teachers inadvertently working from a place of dysconscious ableism; (2) inclusion must be presented as both an ideological commitment and actionable process; (3) teachers\u27 stories to live by must be reframed so that inclusive mindsets are magnified among the school community; and (4) PDSs partnerships can be a driving vehicle to develop inclusive cultures among schools

Professional Development\u27s Complex Ecology: Examining a Whole-School Balanced Literacy Professional Development

This descriptive study reports on the structure and implementation of a school wide professional development model in a southwest public elementary school. The professional development effort was designed to support educators’ understanding and teaching of balanced literacy. The paper reports on the components of this professional development and discusses the strengths of this model in relation to educational research and findings on professional development. We conclude by discussing this model from the perspective of involved administration, facilitators, and teachers, as they consider the process of crossing the borders from professional development into their classrooms. The study is strengthened by teachers’ opinions about the model in their school

Professional Development For Educators In Order To Support English Learner Students From Oral Cultures

This capstone project addresses the question, How can I create professional development for educators in order to support English Learner (EL) students from oral cultures? This project uses a series of frameworks and theories to provide the best comprehensive two-part professional development for educators supporting EL students from oral cultures. It is tailored to educators by recognizing their unique needs as adult learners who receive ongoing training in their field. By catering to adult learners and drawing from both EL best practices and culturally responsive teaching, this professional development offers educators insight and tools to implement when working with EL students from oral cultures. Students from oral cultures experience education differently due to their instinct to gravitate toward people, utilizing relationships and language to connect to others, instead of print. In order to properly support students from oral cultures, the PD offers a resource folder filled with different types of tools to utilize when working with students from oral cultures. The PD is structured to support educators as much as it is structured to support students, through direct modeling that educators can implement in their own classrooms. Key influences of this work are Walter J. Ong’s (2002) Orality and Literacy in addition to Dr. Andrea DeCapua’s (2011, 2009) work on EL students and Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE). This professional development is set up so educators can obtain skills that support students from oral cultures, implement said skills, collect data through student surveys, reflect upon their practices and set goals for future improvement

Building Content Knowledge in Elementary English Language Arts: How a Shift in Curriculum Affects Teacher Perception of Reading

abstract: Desert Elementary is a suburban Phoenix K-5 school. The school has undergone a significant change in its approach to reading instruction due to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) instructional shift of building knowledge through content rich nonfiction. Teachers implemented this shift in their classrooms through a 16-month professional development program called Students Talking for a Change (STFAC). This qualitative action research study explored how teacher perception of reading instruction was affected by this change in instructional practice. Data collection comprised of classroom observations, teacher interviews, planning artifacts, professional development session artifacts and student work in order to determine teacher understandings about reading comprehension and perception of classroom practice. Prior to the professional development, teachers understood reading comprehension to be answering questions correctly and acquiring skills dictated by a basal reader. The texts teachers once used to teach reading lacked topical coherence. As teachers learned how to integrate content into language arts through long-term planning and sustained exposure to a topic of study, teachers changed their understanding about reading instruction. The perception was that content, discussion and multiple interpretations were central components to comprehension. Further, planning documents evolved from student packets to unit plans based on social studies, science and literature.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 201

A Tripartite Framework for Leadership Evaluation

The Tripartite Framework for Leadership Evaluation provides a comprehensive examination of the leadership evaluation landscape and makes key recommendations about how the field of leadership evaluation should proceed. The chief concern addressed by this working paper is the use of student outcome data as a measurement of leadership effectiveness. A second concern in our work with urban leaders is the absence or surface treatment of race and equity in nearly all evaluation instruments or processes. Finally, we call for an overhaul of the conventional cycle of inquiry, which is based largely on needs analysis and leader deficits, and incomplete use of evidence to support recurring short cycles within the larger yearly cycle of inquiry

How educators and parents can collaborate to improve student reading fluency

In this project, fluency practices are defined and explored in relation to an elementary school setting that is partnering with parents on how to promote fluency practices in the home. The Literature Review describes the importance of fluency instruction, how fluency instruction supports literacy instruction, and finally how educators and parents can begin partnering to provide literacy practices in the home. Following the literature review, there is a professional development plan that lays out the key components of collaborating with parents to implement fluency practices in the home

A STUDY ON FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE COVERING SIMILE, METAPHOR, PERSONIFICATION AND SYMBOL IN POEM

 AbstractThis research aims to find out the students’ ability to show figurative languages  and to mention their functions. The research was conducted to the Semester 3 students of English Education Study Program of Tanjungpura University in Academic Year 2016/2017. The research method used is descriptive study. The sample of this research consists of 70 students who are taking Poetry subject in Class A and Class B in Semester-3 of English Education Study Program. The technique of data collecting for this research is measurement test. From the calculation, the mean score of students’ ability to show figurative language was 60,29. Therefore, the students’ ability to show the expressions of figurative language is categorized as “Average to Good”. From the computation, the students’ mean score to mention the function of figurative language is 55,71, thus this result is categorized as “Poor to Average”. The results of this study show that the students need more hours to learn about figurative language including the defintions, the functions, and the identification practice.Keywords: Figurative Language, Poem, Descriptive Study